Little Changes
by Rosenguild B
Summary: Since the beginning the plan was to go solo, just like Uncle Qrow. She would prove to everyone that she wasn't someone that needed to be protected. She would keep her distance, so that if push came to shove she wouldn't put those around her through what her family had gone through with her mother. You know what they say about plans and first contact though...
1. Qrow's Call in the Night

Chapter 1 : Qrow's Call in the Night

The light of the moon shone down on a small log house on the island of Patch, situated just off the coast of Vale. The light of the moon in it's half broken cycle brought a surreal glow to the land as it shone down on the snow filled landscape below. It was just nearing the end of winter.

Inside the home, a celebration occurred. The youngest daughter of Taiyang Xiao Long, 15 year old Ruby Rose, had just informed her family that she had been accepted into the prestigious Beacon Academy two entire years early due to meeting the headmaster of the academy, a curious older man who goes by the title Professor Ozpin.

Ruby had intervened in a robbery headed by the nefarious criminal, Roman Torchwick, who had attempted to steal the inventory of a small dust shop in Vale that happened to be Ruby's regular haunting grounds. After the ensuing battle and the arrival of a mysterious woman who aided Torchwick in his escape and the notorious Huntress and Beacon Academy professor Glynda Goodwitch, Ruby was brought to the local police station to be questioned about the events that night by Professor Ozpin, only to receive the invite much to the young girl's surprise.

Inside the modest home, Ruby currently found herself being smothered in the affectionate embrace of her elder sibling.

"Oh Ruby! I'm so proud of you!" Ruby couldn't help but wince as she was dragged into a bone crushing hug by her older sister, 17 year old Yang Xiao Long. Desperately she reached a hand out towards her smirking father. She was sure she was conveying to him her simple message of 'HELP', if only through her eyes as the rest of her face was somewhere in between her sister's breasts, yet he just shrugged and averted his lilac eyes sending her his own message of 'You deserve it'.

Traitor. She deserves to be tortured for trying to do the right thing? So maybe it was a little stupid for a 15 year old huntress wannabe to try and stop a full-fledged armed robbery on her own, but she had only attacked after they had tried to mug her. Which is more than can be said for Yang. Who single handedly destroyed a nightclub the other week.

That was just the way it worked in this house though. Every time Yang did something crazy and it worked out, it was fine. Because Yang reminded her father of himself, she had heard enough of Qrow's stories to know that much. But when Taiyang looked at Ruby he didn't see her in the same light as he did his eldest. Ruby looks to much like Summer. Every time he looked at her she knew that he wasn't seeing just one person, Qrow too and Yang sometimes. Yang did her best to not treat her like glass and Ruby would never be able to truly get across to her sister how much that meant to her, but still there were moments when it happened.

The difference was, with Taiyang it was always problematic. When Yang does it, she snaps herself out of it quickly and acts like it didn't happen. Qrow is more complicated, he never quite stops seeing her mother when he looks at her, but it doesn't stop him from treating her as his niece. He differentiates between what he can't help seeing and who she really is.

Her dad has trouble with that.

Ruby closed her eyes. Now wasn't the time to think about things like that, not in front of her sister and dad. The last thing she needed was to start getting into one of her moods and for them to get worried about her, she would take what she was getting now versus that nightmare any day.

She opened her eyes again and got back on track.

"Yang! Can't breathe!" The choking theatrics weren't really necessary but she knew Yang loved to play along with stuff like that. The blonde pulled away and grinned at her, in that special way that Yang did everything with her whole heart behind it, and held her at arm's length.

"Oh come on sis! You can't tell me you aren't excited right? You're going to Beacon!" Yang gushed as she absentmindedly brushed some lint off of Ruby's shoulder.

"Yeah of course." Ruby said as she put on a smile for Yang's benefit. "I just - a lot happened all in one day, you know and I really thought things were going to go waaaay worse than they did and I'm still coming down from the adrenaline and-" Yang finally cut her off with a laugh, thank god, she was running out of stuff to babble on about.

"I get it Ruby, chill. Go take a shower or something, I'll make something to eat." Yang said as she spun on her heel and made towards the kitchen. I let out a genuine sigh of relief and heard dad chuckle in response.

He stood up from his chair and walked after his first daughter, patting her lightly on the back as he passed. "You know how she gets, I'll make sure she doesn't burn the house down. You relax for a bit, 'kay kiddo."

Ruby kept her eyes on his back as he exited the room then made her way upstairs, crossing the hallway to the door on the end of the hall and walking into her shared bathroom with her sister. She turned on the hot water on and took to disrobing. Yang had a good idea of taking a shower and while she may have started babbling just to get Yang to stop with the smothering affection, none of it was a lie. It had been a long night so far and the adrenaline crash is total hell.

She switched the water to the shower head and stepped into the shower, drawing the orange curtain closed behind her. The color had been a compromise between the Yang and herself after an argument over colors when they were younger. She closed her eyes again and sent her fingers chasing after the water than ran through her hair, reveling in the feeling of comfort that hot water provided in contrast with the chilled air of winter she had fought in earlier.

What a mess.

She had seen the dust robberies in the news but figured that it was some sort of coincidence that so many were happening all at once. Goes to show what she should think about coincidences.

The fight had been easy, at least for what it could have been. Torchwick had been so successful with fodder like that as his henchmen and it made him all the more dangerous in her book, if not physically than mentally. He could lead the police force of a major city in a kingdom on a wild goose chase with nothing more than street thugs? To be fair, the woman with the explosions and glowing clothing was not small fry in any way. Glynda Goodwitch is one hell of a huntress and the criminals had gotten away with just a few punctures in their ship to show for it.

The two women had only fought for a minute at most, but to Ruby it had seemed so much longer. They were amazingly powerful and she had felt completely out of her league. It had been a while since she had been reminded first hand just how far off she was from her goal.

Funnily enough, a mere hour later and she ended up closer to her goal than she had ever expected this early on. At first when she had been brought to the police station, she had been nervous that they would call her father and that she would have to deal with that nightmare for the next month. She wasn't quite sure if what had actually happened was better or not. On one hand, being accepted into Beacon and generally praised for her actions and skill by both the headmaster of an academy and, begrudgingly, a top huntress and getting offered a spot in the academy had heavily distracted her dad. On the other...she got accepted into Beacon early.

Not that attending Beacon is bad, because it isn't. She planned on it in fact. But with her own class, who left her to her devices because they knew at this point that she wanted nothing to do with them, just the way she wanted it. Attending the academy with Yang would be a disaster. Yang being around would make being distant from people impossible to say the least, her older sister wouldn't understand her reasoning at best and would probably just flat out disagree with her.

Ruby groaned and shut off the water, having been going through the motions of cleaning herself while lost in her thoughts.

What a mess.

She needed to call Qrow tonight.

Patch - The Xiao Long/Rose household - 11:28 pm - Ruby Rose

After dressing in some simple sweatpants and a tank top Ruby messaged her uncle that she would be calling him later that night and receiving a riveting 'k' in response, she went back down the stairs and enjoyed dinner and small talk with her family while simultaneously doing her best to avoid talk about Beacon to moderate success.

Once they finished dinner she gave the excuse that she was tired and headed upstairs, a lie of course as her nerves over the situation she was in would never allow her to sleep.

Walking into her room she swiftly locked the door and made her way to the window, throwing it open and climbing out and shimmying her way up a pipe to sit comfortably on her roof.

Retrieving her scroll from her pocket she rushed to dial Qrow's number, messing up a few times due to her haste. Jerking the scroll up to her ear she began fiddling with the ties on her pants as she waited for him to pick up.

"Hey kid." Qrow's gravelly voice reverberated out from her speakers. She hadn't realized how tightly she had been gripping her scroll or how stiffly she had set her shoulders until hearing his voice. A large amount of tension fled her body almost instantly, her uncle had always had that effect on her since she was a little girl.

"Hi, Uncle Qrow. How's the mission going?" She greeted, almost certain that he could hear the relief in her voice as prominently as she could herself.

"What's got you all wound up, squirt?" He asked. She rolled her eyes, it was just like him to ignore a question he wasn't allowed to answer.

"I got accepted into Beacon tonight." She said, deciding to get straight to the point. The other side of the call went silent for a few seconds.

"I didn't miss any birthday's did I? Or did I forget how to count out here?" He questioned dryly. She laid her back onto the shingles and locked her eyes onto the moon, far too acquainted with Qrow's humor to laugh audibly though it did bring a small smirk to her lips.

"Long story short, some guys tried to rob a dust shop I was in and I fought them. Then a huntress showed up, the bad guys got away and next thing I know I'm meeting the headmaster in a police station and he invites me to attend Beacon this semester. You probably did forget how to count though since my birthday was two months ago. Alcohol can probably do that to you."

Again he said nothing for a bit, the only sound that could be heard was a soft 'thunk' coming from her scroll that she could only assume was him setting down the flask he was about to drink from. He sighed heavily. Wearily.

"Sorry."

"It's fine. I know you're busy. You didn't mean to forget or anything. You just owe me strawberries when you come back. Or a new sight for Crescent Rose. Or both." She said and heard him chuckle softly.

"Deal. So you got into Beacon two years early huh? Why is that a problem?" He asked.

"Because I'm going two years early. With Yang." She stressed to him.

"Ah. And that would get in the way of that solo career you've been planning, right?" He guessed.

"Getting in the way would be putting it lightly. Yang's not going to let me stick to myself, ever."

"Is that a bad thing?" He questioned. I blinked and took a moment to think about what he could possibly mean by that.

"Uh, yeah I think. Why?"

"Because, Ruby, I think you're taking this solo career thing too far."

This time she was the one that was silent, and she started chewing lightly on her tongue. She had been planning on a solo career for three years, shortly before she even entered her current school, Signal Academy. She had toyed with the idea even longer, dating back to when she had started training to learn how to use Crescent Rose. When Qrow was the biggest presence in her life while father spent years grieving her mother's death and her sister was busy with Signal.

"I thought you said-" Her uncle quickly cut her off.

"I know what I said, Ruby. And nothing has changed, if going solo is still your thing in four years then I've got your back. You gotta understand though kid, wanting to go solo doesn't mean being alone, and it doesn't mean you can't have friends." He said. Ruby listened intently to her uncle, as it wasn't often that he spoke this seriously about something. "I understand the why, Ruby. You need to realize that I went solo because I was in a team and realized that I can't...that it wasn't going to work for me. That might not be the same for you."

Ruby was quick to respond. "But if it is the same for me, then what?"

"Then you go solo like you planned. That's all there is to it, kid. You have to try first though or you won't know. Did you really think you'd be able to pull off not being friendly with anyone? You?"

"What if I'm no good at being a teammate? I'm not really at my best talking to people." She muttered into the scroll.

"You probably aren't any good at it, not right now anyway. Listen, when you were a toddler, you were bubbly and excitable. When you first learned to talk we had a hard time getting you to shut up, and I can't tell you the amount of time I got regaled with the tale of how little Ruby just walked up to some stranger and started talking to them like she knew them." He laughed after he finished talking and she felt her cheeks heat up from the story.

"That was baby Ruby!" She shot back quickly in her embarrassment.

"Point is, things changed. A lot of things. You started being a little more distant from everyone and that's fine, but I think you've still got it in you. No matter what happens, I know you'll succeed squirt. You've always been resilient." He finished.

Ruby felt a warmth spread through her chest, fighting strong against the frosty air. It felt nice having someone believe in her wholeheartedly like that. Her father and sister believed in her as well, but their belief went as far their fear. The fear that if they let her wander to far from them, she would disappear.

Ruby took a moment to just breath and think. Try being on a team? She had spent so long thinking that a team would just be a stepping stone to her real goal. She had grown since she made that her goal though and thinking about it, when her younger self had made the decision, announced it to Qrow with such passion, was that passion born of confidence in her thoughts or the fears that she still held onto?

What he'd said made plenty of sense, maybe she would've realized it if she'd wanted to. You have to try something to know if it's for you or not. Short and sweet. Perhaps bittersweet considering the circumstance, like dark chocolate.

Ruby sat up. "You're right, like always."

"I'm not sure about always." Ruby watched as a cloud lazily rolled across the sky, passing in front of the moon and darkening the world around her.

"Thank you, Uncle Qrow. I love you."

"Love you too."

* * *

 **Not super happy with how this turned out. Thanks for reading, I'd appreciate criticism if you have it in you.**

 **This is basically going just be practice for me, so don't expect an amazing plot or anything special. I'm going to be changing things up to keep it interesting though, just in small ways. Little Changes. Get it?**

 **Little Changes in this chapter: Ruby wants to go solo, she was even more influenced by Qrow, and she's much more introspective about herself and the people around her.**


	2. An Awe-full Sight

Chapter 2: An Awe-full Sight

Ruby Rose - Afternoon - Beacon Academy - Vale -

As Ruby took her first step onto the grounds of Beacon Academy she couldn't help but but be in awe of what she was seeing. And not from the incredible view of the school itself.

Specifically, it was the disturbing sight of watching some tall, lanky blonde kid sprint off of the airship and violently vomit what could only be stomach acid into a nearby trashcan, considering how he had been puking the entire flight here as well.

She _really_ wanted to just walk away and get on with her first day of Beacon, but Ruby could identify with the blonde boy's struggle, even if only a little bit.

Not that she got any form of sickness due to travelling in a vehicle, that would be a nightmare for any huntsman or huntress. She didn't enjoy travelling in vehicles though. She might even go as far as to say she disliked doing it.

With the exclusion of aircraft built for speed and some of the higher end cars or motorcycles, Ruby could out speed or at least keep pace with most vehicles with her semblance and honestly she preferred relying on her own body for travel when she could. Much safer. In her own opinion at least.

Unfortunately when it came to long distances or hard to reach destinations, travel by vehicle became the optimal way to go no matter how much she detested it.

Hesitantly, Ruby made her way to the slowly recovering boy, who had finished puking while she had been thinking.

"You...alright?" she asked, announcing her presence to him. He turned with a surprised look and took a few seconds to respond to her. She took that time to take a good look at him when he wasn't hunched over a trashcan.

He was dressed rather plainly, the only thing that really stuck out in his outfit was his armor and the sheathed sword on his belt. His hair was blonde, a bit of a lighter shade that she was used to within her family and he had a dark blue eye color. All in all he looked a bit like her dad. If her dad lacked most of his muscle mass, confidence, tan, and tattoos. So maybe he didn't look much like her dad at all. Finally he seemed to snap out of whatever it was he was doing.

"Oh! Yeah, I'm feeling way better now that I'm not on the ship any more. Thanks for asking, I'm Jaune Arc, short, sweet, rolls off the...tongue. Ladies uh...love it?" He had reached his hand out as if looking for a handshake halfway through his spiel but had slowly sputtered to a very awkward finish when he saw the disgusted look on her face. "Right, I should probably wash my hands. Sorry." He laughed a little but quickly cringed when he accidentally smelled his own breath. She hoped she didn't come off as rude when she laughed right at him.

"Might want to brush your teeth while your at it." She commented. He nodded and turned to the airship with a contemplative look on his face. Looking over his shoulder he gave her a sheepish smile.

"You wouldn't happen to remember where the cargo was, do you?"

A disbelieving look was her response.

"How did you forget over a 30 minute flight?" She questioned. Jaune scratched his face with a look on his face that screamed out that he was trying to remember. Or think of an excuse.

"I puked my brains out?" He tried with a sheepish grin. Until he realized that he was scratching his face with the same hand she had refused to shake a few seconds ago.

Ruby sighed. A small smile took hold of her lips as he freaked out over how dumb he was making himself out to be.

"Come on, I'll show you."

Maybe he's a _little_ like her father.

Ruby Rose - 10 minutes later - Beacon Academy - Vale -

After leading him back to where they had stored their stuff for the flight, both of them grabbed their bags and headed back towards the school after Jaune took a quick stop in the airships bathroom to clean himself up.

"So why did you help me out back there?" Jaune asked her as they strolled through the courtyard towards the Academy. Ruby glanced at him and shrugged.

"I don't really know. My uncle said I should try and make friends while I'm here and I guess you were as good as anyone." She explained.

"Uh...really? I was kind of throwing up, like, everywhere. That looked like as good a friend as anyone?" Jaune questioned waved him off.

"Oh, please. Half the people on that airship looked like they wanted to throw up. I know I did." Ruby whispered the last part so quietly that the only reason she was sure he heard her was because of the relieved look on his face.

"Works for me. My mom always says strangers are just friends you haven't met yet anyways. I know I already said it but, I'm Jaune." Again he held his hand out toward her and she noticed how much larger his hand is than hers. She supposed that came from both the age difference between them and that he was a rather tall boy and that she was a rather small girl.

Musings aside, this time she shook his hand without issue and figured she should introduce herself as well.

"Ruby." She couldn't help herself. "I'm not sure if the ladies love mine though." He glared at her out of the corner of his eyes and she gave him a giant smirk.

"You are short though." Damn it. She had forgotten that part of his little intro.

"Very original." She huffed out. She tried to give him a glare as well but she was still smirking a little.

Jaune grinned before speaking up again. "Anyway, where are we- gah!" He cried out accompanied by a feminine 'oof!' sounding out from his sudden collision with a girl dressed in all white. Ruby immediately noticed that she seemed to have been speaking to an entire entourage of butler looking men who were pulling around entire _carts_ of her luggage.

Ruby stopped immediately when they collided and winced when she saw the absolutely furious look on the girl's face.

When she took in the girl's appearance, Ruby actually had to blink to make sure she was seeing things correctly. The girl could actually be defined by the color white. Her hair was a pristine shade of white similar to snow that no one could mistake for gray, done up in a offset ponytail. Similarly the girl's skin was about as pale as Ruby's own.

Even her outfit consisted of the color almost entirely, the dress and jacket only being interrupted by bits of red and the occasional blue hue. She also noticed that the girl wore heeled boots and several pieces of jewelry. Honestly all the white made her ice blue eyes stand out the most and the scar that cut across the left one.

Shaking off the impression the girls appearance left on her she was about to try and help Jaune up but was quickly distracted by a shine from the ground next to them. Kneeling down she noticed that it was from a vial of dust that, along with several others, had fallen out of the suitcase that the white haired girl had dropped. It must of busted open when it hit the ground.

She reached to gather the dust up when a rather pudgy and short man walked up to her. He looked to be one of the girls butlers.

"Excuse me, miss. Perhaps I should collect Miss Schnee's things for her, they are rather meticulously organized." Ruby gave the butler a smile for his pleasant tone of voice and attitude.

"Thanks, but don't worry. I've got it." She assured him. He seemed hesitant for a moment but nodded and took a step back.

Over at the collision the girl shot to her feet and immediately rounded on Jaune, who was slowly climbing to his feet as well, rubbing his head.

"What are you doing!?" She screeched at him. Jaune, after shaking off the cobwebs, immediately started stammering out an apology, looking rather embarrassed. The girl with the snow white hair didn't seem to be looking for a simple apology, however.

"Sorry? Do you have even a shred of common sense? A huntsman in training and you can't even watch where you're going?" She seethed, taking a few steps forward she jabbed her finger into his chest plate and glared menacingly up at him. "Not to mention the damage you could of caused to my belongings! What do you have to say for yourself?"

Jaune looked shocked and at a complete loss for words. The girl was about to chew him out once again when she was interrupted by a calm voice.

"Didn't you have ample time to notice their approach and alert them or get out of the way yourself? Even more so considering he was talking." Another girl this one a near stark opposite appeared and added in her two cents, which seemed to be complete chump change in snow white's opinion.

The girl dressed in a mix of black white and purple, though black was the predominant theme of her outfit. Dark black hair, along with a dark black bow. A white sleeveless top that transitioned into black on the bottom half and a pair of black fading into purple leggings underneath a pair of short white shorts. Similarly to snow white, her outfit made her eyes stand out the most. A striking amber.

"Exactly what are you trying to say?" The girl in white asked an angry edge still in her voice as she turned to her new adversary. The girl in black raised a eyebrow.

"Weiss Schnee. Heiress to the Schnee Dust Company. One of the largest producers of energy propellant in the world." Snow white, now identified as Weiss Schnee looked surprised and slightly appeased for a moment before amber eyes continued on, "One would think that an heiress would exercise some caution before lecturing someone else about it, but I suppose no one would be surprised, considering your company's business practices."

Weiss looked like she was ready to fight now. Not to mention that she had become so angry that her face was going red. Amber eyes didn't show any signs of aggression in her face, but did tighten her fists.

Ruby cleared her throat and all eyes turned on her. Stepping up to Weiss she held out a suitcase to her.

"You dropped this. All of the dust fell out but I put it back in for you." Weiss took a moment to come out of her rage and register what Ruby had said. She reached out and grabbed the suitcase from her.

"You can't just 'put it back in'. All of that dust is ordered specifically by-"

"Granularity." Ruby stated simply. Weiss blinked and snapped her mouth shut. "The finer powders are first and the most coarse last. I also made sure they were in standard alphabetical. Burn to wind." The girl locked eyes with Ruby before glancing down and popping open her suitcase, checking to see if what Ruby said was true. Glancing back up she snapped her suitcase shut.

"I…" Weiss closed her eyes and quickly brushed off the front of her skirt. "Thank you."

"You're welcome. Sorry for Jaune, by the way, he was distracted because he was talking to me. We were just trying to get to orientation fast." She explained with a smile. The two of them locked eyes again. Silver and ice blue. Weiss took a breath, shot one last glare at the dark haired girl, before turning to Jaune.

"Watch where you're going." With that, Weiss spun gracefully on the spot and took off toward the school. Her butlers fell in line behind her, though she noticed the short and stout man she had spoken to walked beside her. Ruby turned to Jaune and didn't notice one last glance the heiress had thrown over her shoulder aimed that the caped girl.

"I owe you a million Ruby, that girl was seriously scary. That was pretty awesome how you got her to calm down." Jaune complemented, wiping his forehead.

"Ah, don't mention it and she was just angry not scary." Ruby clasping her hands behind her back.

"Is there a difference?" He asked as he brushed his jeans off. Ruby closed her eyes and saw the image of burning red eyes in her mind.

"To me there is."

"I guess. Hey, where did that dark haired girl go?"

* * *

 **I was going to space the chapters that I had already written out more, but I'm gonna fish for feedback lol.**

 **Little Changes in this chapter: Ruby meets Jaune before meeting Weiss, Ruby and Yang flew separate, Jaune bumps into Weiss and subsequently gets chewed out, and Ruby gives off a much more competent first impression than she did before. Mostly because I had her understand the energy source that she somehow knows nothing about in cannon despite being a 'weapons nerd'. If you are wondering where the 'knows nothing about' part comes from, it's from the manga which 'is canon until it isn't'.**

 **Thanks for reading friendos and shout out to anyone who followed and favorited. Special shout out to swimfeared for being my first follow and to TheLatiKing for being my first favorite. I'll probably post another one tomorrow or the day after but don't expect the pace to stay this quick. A lot of this has been pre-written.**


	3. Ballroom Book Club

Chapter 3: Ballroom Book Club

Ruby Rose - Afternoon - Auditorium - Beacon - Vale -

Beacon is for sure a pretty place. She would give it that without a doubt. Large, angled structures, and appealing color scheme of white, gray, and cyan. It even had pillars and columns. Talk about fancy.

Just from this auditorium that the orientation would be held in, a particularly useful fact she and Jaune had gleaned off of a nice, portly man that they had asked along the way, Beacon seemed like a different world from Patch, Signal, or any other place she had ever been to in her life.

Entering through a rather large doorway, Ruby felt her nerves start going haywire within a few steps into the large room. Mostly because it was packed with people.

Ruby _did not_ like crowds. Crowds get to her like nothing else in this world. They got her nervous and they got her anxious, because anything could happen and crowds made it a guarantee that if it was something bad it would get worse.

Nevertheless she had pushed past it before and she would now.

"Ruby! Over here! I saved you a spot!" The familiar, familial voice rang out and she immediately decided that being with Yang would at least bring the likelihood of something bad happening between her and this crowd down to a minimum. She turned to Jaune.

"I'll see you later, okay? I've got to talk to my sister." She didn't wait for an answer and quickly made her way to her sister's side.

Yang grinned at her and greeted her with a hug. "How's it going little sister? How was your flight?" Ruby returned the hug before pulling away and shrugging.

"It was okay. Yours?" Yang's grin only seemed to brighten.

"Mine was actually pretty fun, I saw the news report on the dust robbery you stopped!" Ruby was actually curious about that.

"What did it say?" She asked.

"Only how a heroic citizen stepped in to stop the nefarious Roman Torchwick from causing further harm to a small dust shop. Apparently the owner was ambiguous about the 'hero's' identity because he said that he believed they would rather stay out of the spotlight." Yang explained.

"Bless that old man." Ruby sighed to herself holding a hand over her heart. She was so happy he knew her so well. Suddenly the cost of constantly buying ammunition for Crescent Rose felt way less steep.

"Oh come on! You don't want a little bit of fame, sis?" Yang laughed and nudged Ruby's ribs with her elbow. She quickly shoved her elder sister's arm away.

"Not really. You know how I get with stuff like that." She said and glanced around the room at the hundreds of fellow Beacon applicants. Yang's constant smile got a bit softer and she wrapped an arm around Ruby's shoulders.

"I know, Rubes. You're gonna have to get better about crowds and attention if you're gonna attend Beacon though."

"Yeah." Ruby sighed. "Wait, why would I need to get used to attention?"

"Uh, hello? You got in two years early. Not to mention you _are_ the bee's knees sis. People are gonna notice." Ruby dropped her face into her hands.

"Ugh. Why can't I just have normal knees?"

Yang spent the entire next minute laughing and Ruby spent it pouting.

They were both interrupted by ear piercing ring of a microphone being turned on.

A man stood on the stage at the far end of the room. She recognized him in an instance. Professor Ozpin. The man that invited her to Beacon and had been a catalyst to changing her plans, even if temporarily.

The middle-aged looking mad had messy silver hair and brown eyes. He wore a black suit unzipped with a vest beneath and a green shirt under that. Along with his signature cane and mug, dark green pants and cowl, his outfit was simple but professional. But not to the point of looking unapproachable. He also wore a pair of black glasses. For some reason.

Flanking him was the huntress that had intervened during Torchwick's robbery. Glynda Goodwitch. Speaking of looking unapproachable. Glynda wears a long-sleeve white top and a black pencil skirt with black-brown stockings and black boots. She also wore glasses, but hers seemed useful. The most important feature to Ruby, however, was her very, very cool cape. Purple and jagged edged with her personal symbol printed on it. So cool.

The headmaster cleared his throat, gaining the attention of everyone in the room.

"I'm going to keep this brief. You have traveled here today in search of knowledge. To hone your craft and acquire new skills. And when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose, direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this but your time at this school will prove that knowledge will only carry you so far." Ruby almost felt like Ozpin was staring directly at her and speaking directly to her now. "It is up to you to take the first step."

With that the headmaster stepped to the side and Glynda stepped to the mic. You will gather in the ballroom tonight. Tomorrow your initiation begins. Be ready. You're dismissed." Glynda also stepped away from the mic and the crowd in the ballroom quickly started dispersing.

Yang turned to her.

"Wierd. Did he seem kind of...off to you, Ruby?" Ruby let her eyes roam back over to Ozpin. He stared out into the room, seemingly focused on nothing in particular and his gaze nowhere near her. But still, she couldn't help but feel like he was looking right at her.

"I don't know. To me it's almost like...he's not even really there." Yang looked up at Ozpin and studied him as well before shrugging.

"Hey! Ruby!" Ruby snapped out of her pondering and turned to see Jaune waving at her. Yang suddenly leaned in way too close to Ruby's face for comfort.

"Ruby, were you off meeting boys while we were apart and you didn't tell me?" Ruby groaned and buried her face in her hands once more.

"Damn it, Jaune." She muttered.

"Ruby! Language!"

Damn it, Yang.

That evening - Ballroom - Beacon - Vale -

Needless to say Yang and Jaune meeting was a complete nightmare. She was certain that over the entire time the three of them had been eating dinner not a single word that came out of Yang's mouth wasn't meant to tease her in some way. Jaune had been confused at first and probably a little intimidated from meeting Yang and seeing how she used him to mercilessly tease her younger sister but had quickly caught on and joined in lightly, here or there. Apparently he had a younger sibling or two of his own.

But you know, some things in life just had a way of working out. And Ruby had never believed in karma more than she did right now.

"I can't believe you're actually wearing a onesie." Yang laughed out, head propped up on an elbow as she lounged on her sleeping bag. Jaune cheeks colored a bit and he started pulling at his blue pyjamas. "Actually, you did blow chunks the entire flight from what Ruby said. Maybe I can believe it." Jaune groaned and flopped backwards on his own sleeping bag.

"Did you really have to mention that, Ruby?" He asked turning his head to her. Ruby glanced up from her diary for a moment.

"Did you have to make fun of me at dinner?" She deadpanned, returning to her writing.

"Yang started it. What are you writing anyway?" Jaune asked.

"I was writing about my day. A long time ago my uncle said that it would be good for me to reflect on things." She explained. Jaune just gave an understanding hum.

"And how was your first day, hm?" Yang asked. Ruby started lightly chewing on her tongue in thought.

Going into the day she had been expecting it to be awful. As much as she had complained to Qrow about being in the same year with Yang, the moment she had decided to come to Beacon with the intention of trying to make friends and be on a team her attitude changed on that subject. So when she found out that they would be on two separate flights to the school she was immediately nervous. Jaune had actually helped on that front a lot, even before they had been introduced. You can't do much worse than throwing up on some random kid and then puking for an entire half hour flight. Maybe that was another reason why she had helped out afterwards.

The situation with that Weiss girl had been less pleasant she supposed, but mostly for Jaune. She had just organized some dust the whole argument.

Dinner had been a bit annoying with all the teasing. But she had been living with her father _and_ Yang for her entire life, so it didn't really bother her.

"It was better than I thought it would be, that's for sure." She summarized.

"Wish I could say the same. Between the throwing up and knocking people over, I'm just lucky today wasn't a complete disaster." Jaune complained.

"Oh yeah, you mentioned that. Guess you went one and one on friends and enemies today, huh Ruby?" Yang joked, nudging Ruby's leg with her toes. Ruby kicked at her sister's foot to knock it away but missed when Yang pulled it away quickly with a grin.

Ruby shrugged. "I don't know, she mostly seemed to have a problem with Jaune." Jaune was quick to defend himself.

"Hey, she was mad at that girl with the bow too." He pointed out and she had to agree. Jaune, Weiss had at least said something to the person who had knocked her over before she left. The bow wearing girl had only gotten a scathing glare.

"Who?" Yang asked. Right, Ruby had forgotten to mention bow girl when she had explained the situation at lunch.

"Just a black haired girl with a bow in her hair that said some stuff that the Weiss girl didn't like hearing." Ruby explained. Yang looked curious.

"So she sorta helped you guys out?" Yang asked. Ruby got a cautious look on her face before responding.

"I guess. Why?"

"Because I think I spotted her and found us something to pass the time." Yang hopped up to her feet and reached down grabbing a hold of Ruby's arm.

"I'm not sure if this is really a good time for this." Needless to say, Yang ignored her.

Ruby gave a roll of her eyes, but knew better than to struggle against her sister. Once Yang had her heart set on something, there wasn't a lot of arguing to be done.

Jaune was quick to shuffle along behind them, she guessed not wanting to be left alone. The three of them started moving towards one of the walls of the large room and Ruby quickly caught sight of their destination.

There she was, seated with her back against the wall. The first things that Ruby noticed about her the second time around was that she was _still_ wearing her bow, even at night. The second was, again, her eyes. They gave off an intriguing glow with the flickering light of the girl's candle reflecting brightly off of them. The candle was currently in use to assist the girl in her reading.

The second thing she noticed was the girl's clothing. How was it that the amber eyed girl managed to make Ruby feel underdressed when everyone in the room was in their sleepwear? The black color themed girl may seem mysterious and reserved, but she certainly isn't shy about her body and, in Ruby's opinion, for good reason.

They had approached to such proximity to the girl that they took the girl's eyes from the book. The three of them stopped, apparently Yang though that this is the appropriate distance for starting conversation.

"Hello!" Her sister sang out, with no regard to the rest of the room. "I believe you three know each other?"

Amber eyes studied all of them for a silent second. "You're the ones who knocked over the Schnee girl's luggage, right?"

"Ah, yeah. That was uh...that was me." Jaune responded awkwardly. He seemed nervous again, maybe he wasn't very good at introductions.

"Right." Amber eyes said. She sounded like this was the most boring conversation she had ever found herself in.

"Well, I'm Jaune Arc." He looked like he wanted to say something else, probably that 'ladies love it' bit, but seemed to decide against it last second. Smart.

Yang nudged her sister's side.

"Oh, I'm Ruby."

"Blake." Things got quiet after that short introduction.

"Well I'm Yang, Ruby's older sister!" Unsurprising that Yang was the one to break the silence, she couldn't stand it. "I like your bow!" Blake gave Yang a look that can only be described as the act of asking the question 'Really?', but without saying a word or moving your body in anyway.

"Ok." Blake had the decency to respond despite looking like it was the last thing she wanted to do.

"It goes really well with your..pyjamas." Yang tried again. The second hand embarrassment was palpable.

"Thanks." Blake replied dryly.

"Nice night, huh" Yang forced a cheesy smile with her words. Seems desperation kicked in, Ruby couldn't remember her sister ever saying anything lamer in her life. Blake spoke up again.

"Yes, it's lovely. Almost as lovely as this book." Blake leveled Yang with a stare and Yang stared back. "That I will continue to read." Yang still stared "As soon as you leave." Blake finalized. Yang looked away and her smile dropped.

"Ok, nevermind. This girl's a lost cause." Yang muttered under her breath. Ruby wasn't sure about that, but wasn't going to disagree with leaving. This was awkward enough as is.

"Well, what's it about?" Jaune spoke up in a rush, spitting out the sentence out so fast it was hard to hear what he said. Blake sighed, having already brought her attention back to her book, and set her deadly gaze on Jaune now.

"What?" She asked, exasperated.

"The book, what's it about?" Jaune nervously tried again. Blake appeared caught off guard by the question, but answered anyway.

"It's about a man with two souls, both fighting for control over his body." Jaune seemed overjoyed that he got an answer that didn't make Blake sound irritated to answer.

"That sounds pretty cool. Y'know I was never really into books, more of a comics kinda guy. My mom would always read to me and my sisters though. We'd all huddle up next to the fireplace and she would read all the classics from before the kingdoms." Jaune rambled. Ruby smirked a little. She had only known Jaune for a few hours, but somehow that sounded exactly like him. It did seem to gain Blake's interest for the first time tonight though.

"You're talking about the old Grimm Fairy Tales, the one's that people used to recreate and pass around by hand to promote positivity and keep away the grimm?" Blake asked, more emotion in her voice than Ruby had heard yet. Jaune nodded emphatically.

"Yup, those stories always had the heroes that fought for what was good and who always saved the day. Those were the stories that made me want to be a huntsman." Jaune said with a smile.

"Why's that? Want to save the princess from the evil turtle grimm and live happily ever after?" Blake questioned with humor in her voice. Ruby and Yang both couldn't help laughing a little at that. Jaune blushed a bit and rubbed at the back of his neck.

"Well a guy can dream, right? I just always wanted to be someone that people could believe in, I guess." Jaune said. Ruby thought back to her conversation with her uncle the other night. How going solo didn't mean not having friends. Jaune, she decided, is a good guy and would make a good friend too.

"That's very ambitious for a child. Unfortunately, the real world isn't the same as a those fairy tales." Blake said, looking off towards a dark corner in the room and Jaune looked a little lost, like he didn't know what to say to that.

Uncle Qrow flashed through Ruby's mind. A man who worked harder than anyone she knew, a huntsman who was off doing dangerous missions outside the safety of the Kingdoms more often than he was home, doing things that he refused to talk about to Ruby even if he was allowed to. And even when he was home, he would get up every morning and teach the next generation. She felt like she needed to say something.

"Well, that's why we're here. To make it better." She spoke up. The three others in the conversation turned their attention to her. Jaune and Yang grinned at her, while Blake just gave a small smile. Yang threw her arms around her younger sister.

"Oh, I'm so proud of you." The blonde practically shouted while squeezing her tightly.

"Cut it out." Ruby groaned while shoving her hand in Yang's face, trying to push her face as far away from her own as possible which just served to get Yang laughing. Jaune and Blake looked at each other and shared a small laugh themselves.

"Well, Ruby, Yang, Jaune, it was nice to meet you all." Blake started. She would be quickly interrupted though.

"Can you all keep it down? This area is intended for people to find sleep, not socialize. Loudly." A female voice cut in. Neither Ruby nor Jaune needed to look to know who it was, but did anyway. Weiss, if she remembered correctly, was closing in and didn't look happy. Just like when they approached Blake, two things stood out to her.

First is that, once again, she felt underdressed in what was essentially a slumber party. Second, the blue eyed girl was somehow less intimidating with her hair down. Ruby thought she liked it better than the ponytail, not to say that said hairstyle was bad at all.

Weiss narrowed her eyes upon realizing just who it was that had been making all the noise, but set her gaze on Jaune before speaking.

"Why am I not surprised that you're the one making all this noise." The snow haired girl questioned Jaune with a bit of venom on her tongue. Just like when they ran into her earlier, Jaune had no idea what to do with the angry girl.

"If I'm not mistaken, aren't you the one making noise now." Blake rebuked in defense of the blonde boy and and Ruby swore she _heard_ Weiss' teeth grind. For a girl who had been saying everything short of, 'Go away.' seconds before, Blake was quick to make someone out to be rude. Not that Ruby didn't appreciate the sentiment and from what she could tell, Jaune was thankful as well.

Still, Weiss wasn't exactly out of line with her interruption. Even Ruby was feeling tired and looking around at the disgruntled faces around them, so were some others. Antagonizing Jaune and further extending the conversation really wasn't necessary though, so Blake had a point. Weiss ears colored red from anger and she directed her glare towards Blake, and Blake glared back, snapping her book shut and looked like she was ready to get to her feet if necessary.

"I think," Ruby interjected swiftly, getting the two girls to turn away from each other. "that Weiss had the right idea and that the last thing we all need is to be staying up all night." Thankfully, Yang caught on to Ruby's attempt to diffuse the situation.

"Yeah, long day tomorrow. Orientation and all that." Yang chimed in. Blake seemed to calm down with the two girls interjection; Weiss didn't look any less angry. but relented and started walking off without a word. Ruby watched her go and evidently Weiss could feel it, as she found Ruby's eyes, just like earlier.

Weiss averted her eyes exhaled, walking down the room until she reached her own sleeping arrangement.

"So I guess, good night?" Yang asked. Blake grabbed her candle and brought it to her lips and blew it out.

"Good night."

* * *

 **Okay, this chapter was kind of a hassle for me. Not sure why. Glad I got it out though but if there is anything you notice that puts you off in any way feel free to let me know.**

 **Little Changes for this chapter: As mentioned, Yang and Ruby took separate flights. Jaune hangs out with our favorite half sisters for a lot more of the day and Jaune chimes in on the Blake conversation. Also, Weiss seems like she doesn't have all that much against Ruby in comparison to her beef with Jaune and Blake.**

 **Thanks bundles to TheLatiKing and KHARAKI TAKAN for the reviews and thanks to all of you who favorited and followed. I appreciate every single one. Next update could take a couple of days, but I'll get it out there! Have a nice weekend folks.**


	4. No Birdies Were Harmed

**Ruby Rose - Morning - Beacon Academy Locker Room - Vale -**

To Ruby, the next morning was a complete blur. Waken up ridiculously early by Yang for the purpose of getting to the showers early which, while not a bad idea, wasn't worth the extra hours of sleep in Ruby's opinion. It couldn't really be helped though, Yang's morning routine was a marathon compared to her own, haircare alone taking up more time than Ruby's entire routine. She was quite happy with her short and rather manageable hair seeing that everyday for her entire life.

This was followed by what had to be the most crowded and loud breakfast she had ever experienced. Signal, being on a school on such a small island like Patch, didn't have all that many students and Ruby felt like she would miss it.

The line for the food was half an hour long and that was just from the freshmen being on campus. The rest of the student body would be arriving tomorrow once the first year's orientation was over with, she had to assume that Beacon had multiple lunch blocks to 'thin the herd' so to speak.

Regardless, one second she was waking up still bleary eyed and the next she was standing in front of her locker. Yesterday before bed, all of the students had received a message on their scrolls containing a locker number and the combination to said locker. Ruby wasn't certain how she felt about not having Crescent Rose on her person at all times, but rules were rules.

After entering in her combination and retrieving her weapon, Ruby sat down on the nearby bench and and started going through some standard maintenance. Mecha-shifting weapons, despite being extremely versatile and convenient to carry, had several downsides. One being that the upkeep on such a weapon was rather difficult and meticulous.

Another is fragility. In order to collapse to such compact forms and extend back out on a dime many mecha-shifting weapons were rather prone to getting easily broken. Fortunately, this wasn't a problem when in the hands of a person trained in the use of aura, the increase in durability giving the finicky armaments the boost needed to go from a trade off of attributes to a superior choice in nearly all capacities.

With aura enhancement factored the biggest downside to mecha-shifters was the money needed to make repairs if it did break. However, that downside was again bypassed by Ruby and any other student of Signal. Seeing as they all forged their own weapons, they obviously knew exactly how they worked and could make repairs themselves, provided the correct materials of course which were far less expensive than paying someone else to do it.

Ruby flipped Crescent Rose over in her hands several times, paying close attention to make sure that nothing was out of order. After assuring herself that there was no problems and then reassuring herself twice more, the red hooded girl realized that she was no longer alone on the bench.

Yang was now sat down next to her and most likely had been for who knows how long. Ruby had a hard time attending to reality when she was focused on something. Her blonde haired sister perked up instantly upon noticing that her younger sibling was finished with inspecting her weapon, previously looking bored out of her mind with her chin resting in her hands and both elbows resting on her knee.

Practically exploding off of the bench Yang gave Ruby a grin.

"Ready for today Sis?" she asked. Ruby also stood placing Crescent Rose on its holster on her waist and reached her hands to the sky, giving her back a stretch.

"Yup. Sooner I can get to fighting something instead of talking to it the better." Ruby responded, followed by a groan as she felt the muscles in her back loosen up. Yang laughed.

"We still have to be on a team, you're not getting out of socializing that easy." Yang reminded her.

"I could just be on your team. Boom, no socializing necessary." Ruby commented. Yang looked nervous for a moment.

"Ah, there would still be two other people. Beside it's pretty likely that we won't even be on the same team in the first place."

Ruby fully turned her body to face her sister stared at her. Yang reached up and started messing with her hair, a classic nervous tick of hers. Ruby walked up and poked Yang accusingly on the chest.

"My dearest sister, are you implying that you do not wish to be on the same team as me?" Yang started laughing as soon Ruby finished talking, the most suspicious thing that she could ever do.

"No, of course I do!" Ruby was unconvinced. "I just think that it would be good for you to...you know, break out of your shell." Yang said. Now that, Ruby believed. With a roll of her eyes she removed her finger and sighed.

"Yeah, you're not the only one." Ruby started walking towards the locker room exit. Yang was confused over her sister's last comment but fell in step.

A peculiar sight awaited them at the exit. Blake and Jaune both resided at the exit, the former observing the latter with a look of mild amusement, while the blonde haired boy struggled to get his feet out of a block of ice freezing them to the floor. Jaune noticed their approach and gave them a pitiful look.

"Help?" He pleaded. Ruby pinched the bridge of her nose in exasperation, extended Crescent Rose and went to work. Yang, meanwhile turned to Blake.

"How?" She asked. Blake smirked.

"He saw Weiss earlier and decided to try and 'clear the air'. You can see about how well that worked." Blake explained. The two of them watched as Jaune nervously begged Ruby not to cut his foot off and Ruby snorted and told him that there was no way she would mess up that badly.

"Geez, that girl can sure hold a grudge." Yang said.

"She seemed more angry that the person she was talking to seemed more interested in speaking with Jaune than herself." Blake added.

"Where were you during all this?" Yang asked. Blake shrugged.

"Watching. Enjoying him annoying someone other than me this morning." Another commotion broke out by the attempted rescue from the ice.

"At worst you'll lose a toe." Rub jested. Jaune didn't laugh. Yang and Blake however, did. Though the dark haired girl only showed it through a shaking of her shoulders.

"So you two been hanging out all morning?" Yang questioned. Blake nodded.

"Apparently the both of you got up early and left him asleep, so he found me at breakfast." She said. Yang shook her head.

"That guy is just a lost puppy, isn't he." Yang cackled.

"More like a kitten trying to get out of the rain. He looked so pitiful I couldn't say no." Blake joked. Yang laughed again.

"Yeah, that sounds about right from what Ruby told me when she met him."

A loud crack rang out and Jaune cried out in joy. Blake rolled her amber eyes and the black and yellow themed girls made their way to eachothers company.

 **Ruby Rose - Mid Morning - The Sky - Vale -**

This was the weirdest test ever. Of all time. Seriously, who came up with catapulting students off of a cliff?

Ruby soared through the air over the treetops of the Emerald Forest, firing shots backwards to keep her speed up. She wanted to make as much distance into the forest as she could off of this initial momentum.

Wind whipped at her as she streaked through the air, but Ruby wasn't bothered in the slightest. Her aura defended her eyes against any irritation the air could've caused and her constant use of her semblance throughout her life taught her the do's and don'ts of fighting wind resistance.

She couldn't keep up the pace for very long though, even with using her sniper rifle to extend her time in the air the combined weight of her weapon and herself couldn't help but become victims to gravity's pull. Ruby eyed the quickly approaching scenery and found a particularly open area to land safely in to her left.

Swinging Crescent Rose to the her left side and shifting as much of her weight as she could in that direction she successfully changed her trajectory to align with the clearing. Repositioning her weapon forward she fired several rounds at the earth in order to slow herself down as much as possible, decelerating as quickly as she had propelled herself forward moments ago.

Her impending landing rapidly approaching, Ruby decided that she had reduced her speed enough and with a flourish of her wrist and a twist of her her body, brought herself to a crouch on top of the handle of the sniper scythe, blade now behind her and pointed toward the ground. She kept a tight grip on the handle, took a deep breath and braced herself for the impact.

The blade of her scythe made contact with the ground first and she felt it draw on her aura to keep from snapping as it dug into the ground. She rode her scythe across the ground very much like one would a surfboard on water, the blade leaving a long trench of ripped up dirt as her weapon brought her to a stop. Letting out the breath she had been holding, Ruby hopped off of her scythe and pulled it out of the ground.

She took in her surroundings. Other than herself, the clearing seemed empty but that would probably change soon. Grimm were just as attracted to noise and motion as they were negative emotion, it was just that they could detect negative emotion from much farther off than any of their other sense could reach. So, essentially, she needed to leave quickly because she had caused a bit of a commotion when she had landed.

Ruby had two options on what to do next. She could either start looking for the abandoned temple that housed the relics Ozpin had talked about before he launched them off of a cliff, or she could go on the hunt for a partner. Looking for a partner first would at least get the hardest part out of the way, that being social interaction and in theory it would be safer to search as a group instead of alone. However, if she looked for the ruins she was sure to find a partner eventually since all of the students would be headed there and it would probably save her some time, since she was fast enough to both find it and avoid any grimm she came across.

A noise caught her attention and she quickly abandoned her thoughts. Straining her ears she identified it as footsteps, several of them and quickly headed in her direction.

A burst of motion entered her field of view as a familiar girl, dressed in all white, burst out of the foliage surrounding the clearing.

Weiss spun around the moment she got through the tree line, seeming not noticing Ruby's presence at all and pointed a rapier in the direction that she had come from. Ruby quickly found out why the girl was distracted when multiple beowolves also came charging into the clearing. Weiss didn't hesitate to act, reaching to the handle of her sword and spinning some sort of rotating canister that Ruby assumed held dust of some kind. Weiss stabbed the tip of her rapier into the ground just as the wolves got close and ice sprung up from the ground, spearing through several of the grimm's bodies.

The white haired girl removed her blade from the ground and lunged forward, stabbing an advancing beowolf through the bottom of it's jaw. Another leaped at her from her right and the girl took notice immediately and twirled around to face it as if dancing. A deadly dance it was too, wrenching her rapier out of the beowolf's head and ending the move slashing across the attacking one's jugular.

Ruby allowed herself a moment to be impressed. Weiss was quick on her feet and elegant in her motions. Unfortunately the girl seemed to be faced with a completely rediculous amount of enemies and was quickly become surrounded, no matter how many of the monsters she struck down. Ruby smirked and crouched down, whipped her scythe around towards the fight and felt her semblance wash over her body, a feeling of weightlessness settling in.

Seems her decision had been made for her.

* * *

 **Eh, could of been better but I'm so late that I just wanted to get this out. Combination of work, my birthday and some housework that caused the delay. A bit of laziness too, I won't lie. I did finally watch the Cowboy Bebop movie though, fucking immaculate work of art. I also checked out Castlevania on Netflix and watched about half of Fate/Zero and GATE. Fate/Zero was very good so far and if there is one thing I have to say about GATE it is 'blatant in its intentions'. I still enjoyed it though.**

 **Moving on, thank you to all of the follows and favorites that came in while I was busy. Didn't think this would even get a small following but I appreciate it none the less. Special thanks to everyone that reviewed, please continue to leave feedback. Even the negative things you have to say are valued.**

 **Speaking of the negative things people have to say, apparently some people don't like Jaune much. Understandable I suppose, he is a bit overused as a focus point of fanfiction, but he is still a part of RWBY and a good character. So if you don't like his presence, I would advise you to steer away from this story now since he is, and will continue to be, an main character of this story. Not the main focus of course, that belongs to Ruby and Weiss, but he is one of the tagged characters for a reason.**

 **Little Changes in this chapter: Jaune and Blake spend a bit of admittedly one-sided quality time together, Ruby dirt surfs on her scytheboard and Weiss and Ruby's first meeting is a bit different.**

 **Thanks for reading!**


	5. A Silver Lining

**Weiss Schnee - Mid Morning - The Emerald Forest - Vale**

Today Weiss had decided that beowolves were quickly becoming her least favorite type of grimm. After losing countless times to her elder sister's summoned versions of the monster she had already grown a distaste for them, especially when after every defeat Winter would look at her with a disappointed expression that Weiss knew was deserved, but hated seeing. Once, after a particularly rough defeat, she had even had the gall to think to herself: When would I ever face that many beowolves at one time?

If she ever needed proof that Winter was beyond correct in her training methods, Weiss figured she would always be able to look back to this very moment. All it had taken was an unfortunate landing location for her to find herself in the same situation she had simulated time and time again. At least this time it wasn't below freezing. A silver lining.

As if to punctuate that thought, a fresh pair of claws swung into her vision. Weiss acted on instinct and severed its entire arm with an upward strike of Myrtenaster but the beowolf wasn't willing to give up. Even with a missing limb it attempted to make up for it's first failure by lunging forward to tear her throat out with it's teeth. Her blue eyes widened at the move and she ducked low under the bite and stabbed upwards through its chest, a thick plume of dark smoke billowing from the wound signifying the beasts defeat.

Hearing the rhythmic pound of paws slamming into the ground to her left, she dropped fully to the ground and rolled out of the way of a wide slash from another member of the pack. Seeing as being on the ground was the last position you want to be against a grimm, she hastily cast a glyph underneath her hands and used it to propel herself into a handspring to make some distance.

Landing gracefully she tried to take in her surroundings and gathering her bearings but was immediately knocked away by one of the beasts taking advantage of the opening her gymnastics had given it. The strike to her abdomen was absorbed by her aura but she was still knocked off her feet, her body and weapon sent clattering to the ground. She immediately tucked her arms, tanking the force of hitting the ground with her shoulder.

Wincing, Weiss knew she had to move fast; beowolves were easy enough to deal with as long as they didn't surround you. Unfortunately she knew that they had already done so due to how long she had stayed in the same spot. She needed to get up and start running to put things back under her control, and was about to do so when a shrill voice cried out to her from behind her back.

"Stay down!" the new arrival shouted. Weiss didn't even have time to comprehend what was said, let alone get up, as a flash of red blurred over her head streaking in the direction of one of many beowolves that had been charging her. In a burst of motion the beowolf was instantly bisected, the red figure materializing in flurry of rose petals.

Weiss noticed that the person who had intervened in her fight was the girl in the red hood from the day before. Had she been in a safer environment she may have garnered some amusement from the striking image of such a small girl wielding such a ridiculously large weapon This fact was pushed to the back of her mind when she caught sight in her peripherals of another lycanthropic grimm tearing towards her on all fours. Diving towards where she had seen her rapier fall she snatched it from the dirt and parried the grimm's slashing claws, sending it off balance long enough for her to get back to her feet.

The beowolf gathered itself and was about to go for her again, when the ear piercing sound of a gunshot rang out and it's head violently snapped to the side as a bullet tore through it's temple.

Rose petals filled her vision for a moment and the hooded girl appeared in front of her. The girl glanced at her and for a moment they met eyes, blue and silver. Neither of them were foolish enough to continue the eye contact though and turned their attention back to the remaining grimm that had formed a circle around them, but seemed wary to make a move due to the new arrival.

Nowhere near dropping the attack, as is the nature of grimm, but she would take the small reprieve.

"You alright?" The silver eyed girl asked. Weiss slowly rotated herself so that she and the girl were facing opposite directions, each of them keeping their eyes on their newly assigned half of the beowolves.

"Yes, I'm fine. We need to move out of this position; fighting them while surrounded is foolish." She replied once she was done positioning herself. She heard the girl click her tongue in annoyance and shared the sentiment. Several of the beowolves growled and started circling, their bestial nature overpowering their caution.

"I can carve a path if you want." The girl offered. Weiss raised an eyebrow at the interesting wording but then remembered the earlier bisecting and decided that 'carved' may be appropriate.

She considered their options. With some fire or ice, Weiss could make an opening of her own for them to escape through but if the red haired girl could do it without, she willing to save the dust. Besides that, from what she had seen the hooded girl's semblance was surely speed and it would only make sense for her to make the first move.

"Tell me when." She responded, deciding to keep their dialogue simple for the time being. A beat of four seconds passed before they made their move. One of the beowolves hunched forward, as if ready to break formation and attack them. That action seemed to be what they had been waiting for as the silver eyed girl practically exploded in its direction, prefaced by a scream of "Now!"

Weiss spun in place to follow her and broke into a sprint, following a trail of rose petals hanging in the air. By the time she reached the edge of the circle of grimm the girl had already split her target in two once again and had set herself on the one to its left. Weiss dashed forward leaping over the evaporating corpse and ducking under the slash of a quick to react packmate, breaking through the line of grimm and heading towards the treeline.

A gunshot rang out behind her and the hooded girl was suddenly running at her side. She glanced back toward the clearing and saw the mob of grimm had already began giving chase.

"They're right behind us!" Weiss called over to the girl.

"Can you make ice? Slow them down?" The girl yelled back after checking behind them herself. Weiss nodded and rotated Myrtenaster's dust canister then whirled around swinging her rapier in a wide arc at the pack. A wave of fire flew towards them stopping many of them in their tracks and washed over the ones slow to react scorching them and dropping them to the ground. Wasting no time, she started back towards the treeline.

"That works too!" The girl laughed as they ran. Once they reached the trees the scythe wielding girl took a heavy swing with her blade at the base of a particularly large one, slicing through it with no resistance sending the tree toppling over, once again impeding their pursuers progress and crushing a few of the faster ones.

Now with a healthy lead, the two girls stole away deeper into the forest.

 **Weiss Schnee - Morning - 10 minutes later - The Emerald Forest - Vale**

They had continued running for quite a while to insure that they had lost the hoard of grimm until they had made enough progress that they assumed it was safe to stop. Weiss leaned her back against a tree trunk and began trying to catch her breath, watching as her red clad companion kneeled down in front of the stream they had decided to rest at.

The girl cupped her hands and started rinsing the sweat off of her face. Understandable considering how much ground they had covered and how often she had utilized her semblance to scout ahead for a safe place to rest. After wiping off her face with her sleeve, silver eyes looked curiously toward her.

Weiss recalled their headmaster's words on the cliff before they had been launched into the forest. 'The first person you make eye contact with will be your partner for the next four years.', he'd said. Weiss sighed, she had really been hoping for Pyrrha Nikos going into this. She had also specifically hoped against making any contact with the annoyances she had met the day before.

When she had left home, Weiss had assumed that becoming a student of Beacon Academy would of been relatively simple. Perhaps not easy per say, but she truly felt that she had prepared more than adequately for the event and would achieve it no matter what.

And although she still held the belief that she would absolutely be a huntress in training by the end of the day, she had come to know that 'simple' was the incorrect adjective when attempting to describe the frustrating process.

The first thing to vex her were her fellow students. The blonde haired boy had been an annoyance. He knocked her over, babbled incoherently at her, and the next morning tried, once again to apologize for the action only to interrupt her conversation with the Pyrrha Nikos and steal the girls attention completely away from Weiss herself somehow. He couldn't have been that interesting to someone like a multi-time champion fighter.

The black haired girl had simply been hostile. She had interjected herself into an ongoing conversation, not to do anything more than insult the Schnee family name. Then on their next interaction the girl was immediately rude to her even though Weiss had gone over to ask them to quiet down and rather justifiably in her opinion.

When it came to the girl with the red cloak...Weiss didn't really know what exactly to think about her. She seemed to be friends with a rather frustrating group of people, but she herself hadn't been all that annoying. The mere fact that she knew proper dust handling etiquette was a point in her favor and she had proven a capable fighter in their short altercation with the beowolves.

She couldn't quite tell, but the girl looked a bit younger than everyone else as well. That wasn't necessarily a negative or a positive in her favor quite yet. On one hand it could mean that she would be rather childish and difficult to deal with. Or more optimistically it could be that she was extraordinarily skilled for her age.

Perhaps the dismembered grimm disintegrating in a now far off clearing spoke for which of those options were more likely.

"So, uh...guess we're partners?"

Weiss blinked and felt a warmth gather in her face when she realized that she had been blankly staring blankly at her fellow first year applicant and had gotten so lost in her thoughts that the other girl had walked over to just feet away from her and she hadn't noticed.

"I suppose so. The first person you meet eyes with was the rule." She responded. The girl looked visibly relieved at that.

"Awesome, that means we can head straight to the ruins. I didn't really want to search the forest for someone anyway." She said. "Your name is Weiss, right? I thought I said it right yesterday."

"That's correct. Weiss Schnee. I'm afraid I didn't catch your name."

"Ruby Rose, sorry about the first impressions. I was never very good at those." Ruby extended her hand out to go with her greeting. Weiss reached out and shook it. This was surprising and rather pleasant. Near every interaction with a new person she'd had since stepping off the airship had been mediocre at best.

"Out of everyone I've met so far you may have very well made the best impression." After breaking their handshake off Ruby gave her a nervous smile.

"Is that a compliment to me or an insult to everyone else?" Weiss averted her eyes.

"No comment."

* * *

 **So I guess it's been a while huh? Just a little under two years, yeah? I don't really have an excuse for not updating in that long, just life you know. New house, new job, new car, new people. It has been a wild ride of me getting my life in order these last two years and I'm still not there yet but I have at least gotten to the point where I have enough free time where I'm not completely exhausted to at least do this much. Hopefully I can keep consistent with this, though I wont give any real promises. Thanks to the reviews and specifically to the two guest accounts that just said 'Update' and 'Please update!' respectively. That actually did light a fire under my ass and I'm glad it did because I really do love to write. See you guys when I see you.**


	6. Ride of the Valkyries

**Ruby Rose - Noon - The Emerald Forest - Vale**

After their brief reintroduction the two newly designated partners had started moving again to try and find the ruins. Weiss had suggested that they travel alongside the river in search of it, as any settlement where people lived needed to be close to water to survive. So far they hadn't run into any more trouble past the initial pack of beowolves, just a random Creep and a tiny Nevermore, but there was no telling how dangerous this forest truly was and trying to set up shop any significant distance from a good water source was asking for trouble in a world with creatures like the grimm around.

Ruby couldn't be certain since she had interrupted the fight with the pack of Beowolves before the Weiss had gotten a chance to really show what she could do, but the white haired girl seemed skilled in her opinion.

Growing up Ruby had always been a geek for weapons and while she didn't freak out when she saw one that she liked anymore, she was still a big believer in the old saying 'the weapon makes the wielder'. Ruby had always felt like Crescent Rose was a reflection of herself. In rifle form it was small and unassuming but when it shifted into its scythe form there was no mistaking how dangerous the weapon truly was. She always treasured moments when someone saw it for the first time, the shocked faces of her classmates on the day when they got to show off the weapons they had made were some of her favorite memories of her time at Signal academy.

Yang's shotgun gauntlets, Ember Celica, were the same. Her older sister was gorgeous and anyone that saw her weapon in its unarmed form didn't give it any mind, sometimes they might even mistake it as some sort of jewelry. But once you got to know Yang you learned that past all the good looks and bright personality was a fiery temper that made her quick to throw the first punch and Ember Celica packed all the power she needed into it.

She felt like it held true no matter who you applied it to, a hunter or huntress' weapon reflected who they were. So when she had first seen Weiss' weapon she wondered how that old saying applied to the two of them? A rapier was a slender blade and one that, above all, required elegance, grace and poise to wield to maximum effectiveness. At first glance those qualities seemed to define the dignified looking heiress.

But Ruby had already seen some of the complexities in the weapon. In exchange for a typical guard that most rapiers had, this one had a revolver-like chamber instead. From what she could tell, each slot of the chamber was loaded with a different type of dust that she could cycle through by hitting the hammer and activate by pulling the trigger. She wasn't quite sure just what all the girl could do with the dust aside from simple things like throwing fire but she figures she would find out soon enough.

Despite being a simple weapon without any crazy surprises like mecha-shifting, the rapier may have more complexity to it than even her Crescent Rose. Ruby wondered if the person was the same?

" _Well i...like...ace...fficult...to...nd."_

Ruby snapped out of her musings as she could barely make out the distant sounds of someone speaking through the trees.

"Weiss did you hear that?" She asked her partner, who seemed a little startled at her breaking the silence. Other than the occasional communication about grimm, the two of them hadn't spoken much at all after their initial conversation. It had been a bit awkward for Ruby at first, but she figured that Weiss was just taking this seriously and Ruby decided to do the same and quickly let the discomfort go.

"No, I didn't. Was it a grimm?" Weiss questioned as her hand twitched towards her weapon. Ruby shook her head.

"It sounded like talking to me." Ruby said. Weiss raised an eyebrow, but nodded and walked closer.

"What did they say?" Weiss asked.

"I'm not sure. I could only really make out bits and pieces." Ruby gestured with her hand to their right and added, "I think it was somewhere in that direction, you want to go check it out?"

"I-"

Just as Weiss was about to speak a gust of wind whipped past them, ruffling their clothes and blowing around their hair followed by the horrible, loud screech of what could only be a grimm. Both girls had just managed to pull out their weapons when a black, feathered form of a giant Nevermore soared over their heads. Ruby was fully prepared for the creature to notice them and attack when another sound was heard.

"YEEE HAAAAW!"

Searching for the source of the sound, Ruby couldn't believe her eyes as she spotted an orange haired girl with some sort of black and white top and a pink skirt clinging to the back of the massive grimm. The girl let out several more cries of excitement as she and the black bird disappeared over the treetops in the exact direction she had heard the voice from.

"What-" Ruby tried to say but was also cut off as another person burst out of the forest, sprinting in the direction of the girl and the Nevermore. This time it was a boy wearing a green long-sleeved tailcoat with white pants and black hair with a single pink streak in it that matched his eye color. Ruby only had the time to acknowledge what he looked like before he too disappeared into the foliage.

Silence reigned over the two girls who remained in the clearing, both trying to comprehend what had just happened.

Ruby turned towards Weiss, who looked at her with an identical slack jawed expression. For several seconds they just stared at each other hoping that somehow their partner could explain what had just happened. It turned out, neither of them could.

Wordlessly they both ran in pursuit of a boy, a girl, and a giant bird.

 **Ruby Rose - Minutes Later - The Emerald Forest - Vale**

Eventually they came across another clearing and stopped at its edge, this one containing the broken remains of some circular stone temple that Ruby could only hope was the location of the relics they were tasked to find. They weren't the only students there, however.

The boy in green they had been chasing after had already arrived and the girl he'd been chasing was still cheering loudly on the back of the giant Nevermore who was much higher up in the sky than earlier, circling above the clearing wildly in an attempt to get the girl off it's back.

Standing just in front of the temple were Blake and Yang, who were staring up at the girl and grimm in confusion, not noticing her's or Weiss' arrival.

Panting in exhaustion the boy trudged over to the temple and desperately tried to catch his breath.

"Did that girl just fly in on a Nevermore?" Blake asked incredulously. Yang looked like she wanted to say something, but before she got the chance she was interrupted.

"NORA!" The now recovered boy shouted. The tone of his voice somehow managed to sound exasperated, tired and endeared at the same time.

"Coming, Ren!" Nora, the girl riding on the back of a grimm for reasons she wasn't sure she wanted to know, responded. Then, with a laugh, she jumped off the Nevermore.

She pulled out a weapon and aimed it at the ground. Due to the distance Ruby couldn't tell what it was other than that it was some sort of firearm but whatever she had planned to do to stop her fall was thwarted by Jaune crashing into her in mid-air sending them hurtling into a tree.

' _This is the most ridiculous series of events I have ever seen.'_ Ruby thought to herself. Then, as if hearing her thoughts and finding amusement in her naivety, the multi-time Mistral Tournament Champion, Pyrrha Nikos was chased into view by a Deathstalker the size of a large truck.

"What in the world is going on here?" Weiss questioned. Ruby wasn't sure if she was meant to answer that question but if she was she didn't know how.

"I don't know." Ruby answered. After some impressive successes at attempting to dodge while in a full sprint, Pyrrha got clipped in the side and sent sprawling onto the ground several feet forward. Seeing this, Ruby turned to her partner. "But we need to help her."

Weiss nodded and the two of them charged at the moss covered scorpion. She heard Yang call out her name as they passed but kept moving, activating her semblance she sped directly at it and then turned right sharply when it took a swipe at her. She stopped using her semblance for just long enough to take several shots at its side with Crescent Rose in its rifle form. The bullets bounced off of the white bone plating that covered a large portion of the grimms body, but it did turn towards her to try and attack again with a stab of its stinger.

Once again she sped off in a burst of rose petals and fired a round into it every few feet just to keep its attention. This grimm would be an annoying fight for her, its armor was strong enough that her bullets didn't do much of anything and it had the reflexes to force her to dodge when she charged at it even with her speed.

Fortunately for Ruby, Weiss had noticed that the Deathstalker had its focus off of herself and made her move once its back was turned. She attacked with a speed that surprised Ruby and thrust the length of her blade into the gaps in the plating near its hind legs.

The grimm gave out a high pitched shriek and attempted to turn and swing its heavy claw at her. For some reason it stopped mid-turn and its body started shaking in random spasms. Weiss retracted her sword and used the Deathstalkers inability to move to her advantage, cocking the hammer of the dust revolver portion of her blade twice and then pulling the trigger. Her rapier glowed a pale blue that Ruby identified as ice dust being activated.

"Ruby, the Nevermore!" Ruby heard Yang shout. Ruby looked over her shoulder and her heart jumped into her throat when she saw the avian grimm diving at her. Before it got close to the ground it flared out its wings, stopping all of its own momentum and firing out pitch black feathers down on her like a hail of knives.

Without hesitation Ruby activated her semblance and started running, but the knife-like feathers would cover such a large area when they struck the ground that even with her semblance she wasn't sure she could get out of the way in time. She heard several people cry out to her and one voice stood out among the rest.

"Ruby get down!"

Weiss' voice rang out loud and clear and without a second thought Ruby dove to the ground and curled in on herself to make as small a target as possible, it was her best chance of coming out unharmed either way.

The air around her grew cold and she heard a series of rhythmic thunks for a while until the sounds stopped. Finding the courage to open her eyes she saw a wall of ice had erected itself between her and the feathers. One of them looked like had it passed through the barrier of ice it would of pierced right through one of her legs and Ruby doubted her auras defense would have done anything to stop it. Where the wall stopped a long trail of frozen grass extended all the way to where Weiss had stabbed her blade into the ground.

After climbing to her feet all of the air was knocked out of her lungs as Yang crushed her in a hug.

"Ruby! I'm so glad you're ok. You are right? Nothing hit you?" Her sister questioned, voice heavy with relief. Ruby's heart sank at that sound and immediately started trying to placate her worries.

"I'm fine, I'm fine, see? Not a scratch." To her embarrassment, Yang actually looked her up and down searching for anything that would convince her otherwise. She was beyond thankful when Weiss, Blake, and Jaune all ran up to them, prompting Yang to free her from her grasp.

"That thing is circling back around. What are we gonna do?" Jaune said. A look to the sky showed that the Nevermore which had flown off after its previous attack and was now turning back to try and finish the job. The group's attention then turned to the Deathstalker who let out another shrieking sound, its legs, claws, and tail twitching rapidly as it gained more control over its actions.

"We need to complete our objective while we have time. I'm not sure how much longer my lightning dust is going to keep that thing stunned." Weiss said, looking to Ruby for confirmation. Ruby nodded.

"Right. The relics are here?" Ruby asked, looking to her elder sister.

"Yup. On pedestals in the temple." Yang confirmed. Ruby started running toward the decaying stone structure and heard the rest of the group follow behind her. Waiting at the entrance was Pyrrha, Nora, and the dark haired boy that Nora had called Ren.

Ruby moved past them and saw the pedestals which were positioned in a large semi-circle around the room and on top of the pedestals were a multitude of black and gold chess pieces. Walking over she picked up a gold knight piece. Jaune stopped next to her and picked up his own relic, a gold rook piece.

"We should leave." Ren stated to the group as she and Jaune exited the temple.

"Yeah, there's no point in fighting these things right now, we need to get back to the cliffs." Ruby agreed.

"Let's make it fast." Blake said as the Nevermore close in on their location.

And so, the eight potential Beacon Academy students fled the clearing with two deadly grimm in hot pursuit.

* * *

 **Not too long after my chapter five, I'm pretty happy with that. Another thing I'm pretty happy about is that this story hit 100 followers which I did not expect. Thanks a lot for following and thank you to all the favorites and especially the reviews. Everyone of them put a smile on my face. I would give you guys more in this authors note, but I finished this up after work and i'm nodding off just writing this. I hope you guys enjoy and if you don't, consider letting me know why. See you guys next update. Maybe next week. Maybe.**


End file.
